Adriano Zumbo is an Australianpâtissier and chef, known for his challenging desserts on MasterChef Australia. He calls himself the "Sweet Assassin", "Patissier of Pain", "He Who Must Not Be Baked", "the Dark Lord of the Pastry Kitchen", "If Bruce Willis Was An Australian Baker", "The Winston Churchill of the Pastry World" said nobody ever and "Lord Voldecake". He has also been billed as "Australia's answer to Willy Wonka".
Early life and education
Adriano Zumbo was born to Italian parents Frank and Nancy Zumbo from Calabria in 1981 and was raised in Coonamble, New South Wales, northwest of Dubbo. Zumbo's parents owned the localIGA supermarket, where he developed a and a keen business sense. His early years were spent in Italy where he learned to appreciate various types of coffee, reflected in the coffee-inspired culinary items found at the various patisseries he owns around Sydney. After finishing school, Zumbo travelled to Sydney to start his pastry chef apprenticeship in 1997. He worked under renowned culinary icons in Australia and France including Ramon Morato and Pierre Hermé.
Career
Zumbo started his career by supplying homemade tarts, muffins, brownies and banana bread to local cafés in Sydney. He later switched to selling goods to grower's market before opening his first patisserie in Balmain in 2007. As of 2017, Zumbo had ten patisseries in Sydney and Melbourne. In August 2018, Zumbo's company was placed in voluntary administration, with plans for existing stores continuing to stay open.
Television appearances
Zumbo appeared on a six-part documentary television seriesZumbo, featuring the daily routine of the chef at his Balmain kitchen business, which screened on SBS One in 2011. Zumbo has appeared on every season of Masterchef, starting with setting a croquembouche challenge in season 1. His fifth appearance in 2010 challenged contestants to recreate his raspberry-beetroot and black olive macaron "tower of terror". Within three days of the episode airing, he had sold 5000 macarons at his Balmain shop, quadruple the normal rate. Zumbo's vanilla V8 cake was featured as a challenge dish in the 2010 season of Masterchef, and has layers of vanilla glaze, crème chantilly, water gel, macaron, brulee, chiffon, syrup, ganache, almond crunch and almond dacquoise. The cake had originally been created in honour of Margaret Fulton's 85th birthday, and was so named for its eight textures of vanilla. In June 2016, the same layered cake was listed as number 8 in Good Food's 2016 top 10 cult desserts in Sydney. In August 2016, Zumbo co-hosted Seven Network cooking series Zumbo's Just Desserts with Rachel Khoo and Gigi Falanga. In the 2018 Netflix series Sugar Rush, hosted by Hunter March, Zumbo is a judge alongside Candace Nelson.
Controversy over failure to pay workers
In 2017, A Current Affair featured accusations that Zumbo underpaid his staff. Zumbo later confirmed that the business was backpaying staff due to payroll errors.
Publications
In 2011, Zumbo released his first book, Zumbo: Adriano Zumbo's fantastical kitchen of other-worldly delights.
Zumbo, Adriano. Zumbarons: a fantasy land of macarons. Murdoch Books.
Zumbo, Adriano. The Zumbo files: unlocking the secrets of a master patissier. Murdoch Books.
''Zumbo''
Zumbo is an Australian observational documentarytelevision series following patissier Adriano Zumbo at his Balmain, Sydney kitchen business. The series premiered on 10 February 2011 and ran for 6 episodes. It screened on SBS One Thursdays at 7:30pm. Adriano is well-known for his signature dish, the macaron and the first episode featured the lead up to 'Macaron Day', as the kitchen pumps out close to 30,000 multicoloured macarons. Episode 2 focused on the preparation of Adriano's new 'Summer Collection,' a range of new creations presented at a runway show. Episode 3 featured Adriano returning to his hometown, Coonamble, to help cater for one of the biggest events of the year – his father's 70th birthday.
Personal life
In 2017, Zumbo and My Kitchen Rules contestant Nelly Riggio began dating.
